THE THEATRE

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 July 1925, Page 12

THE THEATRE

PEOPLE, PICTURES, AND PLAYS

Miss Bathie Stuart, of Auckland, wluj - took one of the leading roles H] “The Adventures of Algie,” received recently a tempting offer to tour New Zealand i ll connection with a “movie venture, hut promptly declined.

More than 300 motion picture theatres in Australia have the_ Commonwealth Government’s fine “Know Your Own Country” series of trayelogue s as one of their regular weekly features.

Harlod Lloyd is one person who does believe that there is “something new in the movies.” So he set out to show screen fans the world over that an original and unused idea could he made into a motion picture. In “Girt Shy,” a forthcoming Master picture, he' has, in a measure followed in the footsteps of “Grandma’s Boy,” but he has developed a picture that is certain to be hailed as novel, and a worthy •successor to the previous Liovd triumphs.

Dorothy Brunt-on. leaves Australia ior England in November. She declined a tempting offer from Australia.

Gladys Moncrieff was to appear in “The Street Singer” in Sydney on July 4. Her next new role will he in “Frasquita.”

“A Life for the Tsar,” Glinka s famous opera, lias been rewritten l>> order of the Russian Soviet Government, with all monarchical suggestions eliminated and its name changed to “Scythe and Hammer.” Verdi, Donizetti, and Rossini operas also are being revised; even Muscagni s “C-avaU liera Rusticana” has not escaped the scissors of the censor.

The Moon and Morris Revue Company, newly organised by Sir Benjamin Fuller and Mr. John Fuller, will soon be at His- Majesty’s, Wellington. The new company includes many wellknown artists in Walter George, remembered for his clever Sunshine Players throughout the Dominion, Sidney Burch all, William Baresford, Claude Holland, Lily Foster. Jean Keith, and Lily Denville.

Tlie theatrical firm of Messrs Evans and Salter, of New York, are making 'arrangements for the tour of celebrity artists to Australia and New Zealand. Mr Jack Salter, who is managing Madame Galli-Curci’s tour, stated that it was anticipated that Tita Sc.hipa, the famous lyric tenor, would visit New Zealand in about two years time. He was fullv booked for the next two years including a season at Milan Another of the firm’s artists who will eventually appear in Australia and New Zealand is Joseph Lehevinne, a young Russian .'pianist who has an excellent following in America and in Europe.

The heart of London’s shopping diatrict is pictured in “The Lost World,” which is shortly to lie released in New Zealand) by First. National Pictures. This sequence of the- film shows a bronto-saurue of the prehistoric era ten million years ago, reincarnated and running amuck in the English metropolis. The picture is an adaptation from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s sensational novel of the same title. Bessie Lore, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery and Lloyd Hughes head the human cast of the picture.

Mary Pickford may make her next picture in the marshes of Louisiana. The story is adapted from an original of Katherine Hennessey’s hv Winifred Dunn. Louisiana may he picked as the locale, and Harry Oliver, supervising art director, is expected to make a trip into some of the remote sections near Orleans in search of locations. Oliver, who supervised the _ sets of “Little Annie Rooney,” which Miss Pickford is now making, has been retained as supervising art director both by Mies Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.

Surely one of the most- novel insurance policies ever underwritten was taken out by the management of a local theatre with a Canadian company, covering every ticket holder against “death by laughter” when viewing a humorous film. Every man, woman and child who saw the film was covered by a blanket policy for one thousand dollars each, “payable to the executors, administrators, or assignees of the insured, immediately upon receipt and approval of proofs of _ death by laughter; premium included in the price of admission.”

Ail .important purchase was recently completed when Zane Grey handed Jesse L. Lasky, first vice-president of Famous Lasky Corporation, a signed contract for the film r.ight s to. five of his hooks. They are: —“The U-P Trail,” “The Man of the Forest,” “Desert Gotd,” “The Desert of Wheat.” and “The Mysterious Rider.” All will be produced with the same fidelity that marked Zane Grey’s pictures during hi s long association with Paramount.

' Foreno Molnar’s highly successful stage play, ‘‘The Sway,” described by the critics as “the perfect- comedy of the year.” is now released by Paramount. It. j s a satirical comedy with a delicate romance of a girl-snob who throws over royalty for the man slie loves. The featured players are Adolphe Menjou, Franceg Howard and Ricardo Cortez.

‘ A British film producer of my acquaintance (says a writer in a London paper) estimates that the increased revenue from Tom Mix films, owing to the interest his visit aroused among the London public, may amount to as much as £IOO,OOO, equivalent to a levy of one and sixpence per head on. our vast army of picture-goers for the benefit of America.

“Bulldog Drummond,” from the gripping adventure novel of that name by “Sapper,” is to be presented shortly by Selzniek Pictures, by arrangement with Hugh ,1. Ward Theatres Proprietary, Ltd. It is a photoplay of unusual type, with a thrilling and romantic plot, and is brim full °f mystery and breath-taking situations, while throughout runs a tender love story.

The new picture theatre which is being erec-tcd in New York by the Famous Players-La sky Corporation, will be twenty-nine istoreys high, will cost 13,500,000 dollars, and will have a seating capacity of 4000. Judging from descriptions of it, it will be very imposing. There will be a- grand lobby 102 feet long by 47 feet wide, rising five storeys. Made of marble and bronze, it is designed to resemble the foyer of the Paris Opera. An important cinema conference to be held in Paris last month, was organised by tlie Commission Interuationolle Co-operation Intelectuelle, instituted under tbe auspices of the League of Nations. The object principally was to enlist the sympathies of the film world in the cause of international peace rather than in propagandist films.